Update November 11, 2021: Keith Hampton received a sentence of one year from Judge Peggy Chiampias.
A Chicago man who’s on parole for burglary allegedly broke a Loop jewelry store window, smashed display cases, and collected more than $38,000 worth of merchandise Friday evening. And the store was open for business at the time.
Keith Hampton, 30, hurled a metal city of Chicago trash can through the window of Kay Jewelers, 101 South State, and climbed into the store around 6:45 p.m., prosecutors said Saturday.
Patrol officers saw him standing near the broken window and approached the scene. But Hampton took off running, then went back into the jewelry store, and used a chair to smash display cases, according to prosecutors.
After smashing the displays, he allegedly collected $38,602.64 worth of merchandise. That’s when the store’s armed security guard and Chicago cops took him into custody.
The entire incident was recorded by the store’s video surveillance system, prosecutors said.
According to Illinois Department of Corrections records, Hampton, age 30, was paroled on December 16, 2019, after serving half of a three-year sentence for burglary. He went to prison for five years in 2015 for residential burglary, too, the records show.
On Saturday, prosecutors charged him with felony burglary and felony criminal damage to property in connection with the jewelry store incident. Judge Susana Ortiz ordered him held on $75,000 bail in the case. But Hampton will not be able to go home right away because IDOC is holding him without bail while they consider revoking his parole.
